Contacts

Well, Im pretty sure Im changing Java to a 20/20.  Im over spending so much time on running contacts. First they are good, then they fall apart, then they are good again.  I want to spend more time on handling.  I went to the field on Wednesday.  She didn't hit one running contact and that was the AKC contact zone. Ugh!.  So we started our 20/20.  I have more back chaining to do.  She gets it solid if she is just on the down ramp.  When she runs the whole thing, and I say "touch", you see a big change in her running. Sometimes she even stops.  When she does run all the way across, she looks very hoppy. 


 Im taking another Daisy Peel on-line handling class.  When I sent my first video in, I asked her not to tell me every thing that is wrong with each run. I asked if she would just tell me one or two of my biggest problems and how to fix them. I told her it was over whelming to me when she tells me everything that is wrong and I cant seem to fix anything. 

I got some good feed back this time.  Also, my dog didn't seem to understand a call the heel to be able to by pass the first tunnel entrance. We've been working on that a lot over the pass week. I think she gets it now.   On the video I sent Daisy, Java kept going off course into the tunnel at the end of the sequence.  So she told me I needed to do something before she takes that #10 jump. That I was trying to handle it after she takes the jump and its to late by then.  So I need to decelerate and call her name or shape the turn so she isn't looking at the tunnel .  (Meagan, I think this was also the problem when I ran the course with you last week. Where it was weave poles, jump, to the back side of the jump. She couldn't make the turn and barked at me.  If I had shaped it more, it probably would have given her more info that she needed).  So anyway, worked like a charm.





Sorry I haven't blogged much.  Its winter, everything is so dead looking.  I hate winter.